Twenty-One and Then Some
by WannaBeBabe
Summary: This is my version of the ending of Top-Secret Twenty-One. Consider this the lost last chapter of the book. I changed nothing in the book so there are **major spoilers**. This is a BABE. Rated for language.


_****This is for all of you that asked that I share this, not sure it's great, but I needed to write it. Think of this as the unpublished last chapter of Top Secret Twenty-One. **__**I didn't change anything from the book at all, so there are huge spoilers, so be warned.**__** I just wanted to end on a happy Babe note, instead of a dirty Morelli note. For now this is a one shot, perhaps when I finish some of my other stories up I will come back to this and write a sequel with a HEA Babe ending. Hope you enjoy.****_

I had just slid Rex's cage back onto my kitchen counter when I heard the front doorknob turn. I grabbed the handle of the one frying pan I owned and ducked behind the small counter. I was thinking the frying pan sucked as far as weapons go, but I had nothing else. I was also thinking maybe I should have taken Morelli's Glock with me when I left his house earlier, at least his gun had bullets. I rolled my eyes at myself, who was I kidding? I couldn't shoot something unless it was a few feet in front of me anyway, at that range I may as well use the frying pan.

I heard the footsteps in the foyer, then the door click shut and the locks turn into place. Hmm, bad guys hardly ever lock the door. I peeked out from my hiding spot to get a look at my trespasser and let out the breath I hadn't known I was holding. I stood up and stepped from behind the counter.

Ranger's eyes twinkled a little as he noticed the frying pan in my hand. "Babe. You weren't cooking, were you?"

"You didn't knock," I grumbled at him.

"You didn't lock your door."

I shrugged then, that was true. "I was going right back out for the rest of my things." But there was no longer any need to go back downstairs. He had carried up my overstuffed laundry basket and my bag of toiletries. He dropped them onto the floor near the counter and looked me over, probably checking out my latest batch of slowly fading bruises and cuts. "You should try knocking next time, so I don't accidently hit you."

He chuckled at that. "Where is your gun?"

"Bedroom."

"It loaded?" I ignored that question, besides he knew the answer. He sighed and picked up one of my curls, spinning it around his finger before pushing it behind my ear. "This is one of the reasons I think about sharing a closet with you."

"Because your gun is always loaded?"

He gave me that wolf grin of his. "Exactly."

Oh, boy. In all honesty that was one of the reasons I thought about sharing a closet with him too. "What are the other reasons?" I asked without thought.

He didn't respond. Instead he turned and looked around the apartment. The walls were freshly painted the same color as before, the rocket hole was patched so you'd never know anything happened, and the new, ivory carpet gave the space a more sophisticated feel, even if it was empty. I had no furniture or TV or anything. It had all been destroyed in the fire and I hadn't bothered to shop yet.

"I wasn't sure you'd be here," he finally said.

"I just got the okay that the apartment was ready for me." He nodded slightly. "You're moved back home now too."

"RangeMan was cleared a couple days ago. We've been busy getting everything back online. We had to close down or hide a lot of things before the FBI got there." I still wasn't sure what the secret things RangeMan did were or why they were secret. I figured I never would, but oddly enough I was alright with that. I trusted that Ranger was only doing things for the good of the rest of us average humans.

He walked into the living room and stood there, looking out the window of the empty room. So I walked over and stood next to him. It wasn't like I could ask him to sit down, there was nothing to sit on. "So did you need something?" I finally asked, wondering what brought him over when he wasn't sure I'd be here.

"I wanted to see you."

I cocked my head up, looking at his side profile. "Why?"

"Because I haven't spoken to you since you left me in Atlantic City."

I grimaced when I thought about how I had left him there, pretty quickly after Grandma Mazur found her way into our hotel bathroom while he was showering. I thought it best to separate the two of them before Grandma started to tell him how much she liked seeing him naked and he decided to shoot her into silence. That wouldn't help his karma any.

"Everything with Vlatko work itself out?" I didn't want to say, did they write it up as suicide instead of murder. Not that I thought of it as murder, I thought of it more as self-defense. The guy did want Ranger dead and tried to kill me, not to mention the entire casino full of people he tried to poison. No, I felt nothing but relief that Ranger killed him.

"Yes. There were a lot of statements and paperwork, but it's all wrapped up."

"Good."

He stepped closer to the window and looked down at the parking lot. "I couldn't allow him to live. He would have gotten out of prison and you would have been a target again."

"So would you," I answered. "I sleep a lot better knowing there isn't an assassin after you."

"My past keeps coming back to get me." Geez, he seemed so lost. I'd only seen him like this once before and that was when his daughter had been kidnapped. I wasn't sure what was happening, but I wanted to comfort him. So I moved closer and slipped my arm around his waist so I could lean against him. He pulled me closer, slipping his arms around me, holding me tightly. "You're constantly in danger because of me."

I heard the warning bells going off in my head. No! No! No! He was going to leave me. "Ranger?"

"Babe," he said softly. He was holding me so tightly I couldn't even look up at him. I was just there, waiting for him to walk away, out of my life, forever. I felt the tears start to well up in my eyes. Part of me always knew he'd walk away from me, but I never thought it'd feel like this. It felt like he was tearing my heart in half. "Stephanie. Please don't cry."

"Don't walk out of me then," I practically begged.

"I have been so selfish with you. I knew from the start I should have kept a safe distance from you, but I couldn't do it. I let you in."

I pushed away enough that I could look at him. His face was a blank slate, but there was tension around his eyes and his lips were drawn back like he was in pain. "No, Ranger. I'm glad you let me in."

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Every rule I ever lived by went out the window when I met you." He let go of me suddenly and started to pace the empty room. "You have no idea what this is like for me."

I had no idea what he was talking about, but he was starting to freak me out. The tears were replaced by panic. He really was going to end things and I couldn't bear the thought of being without him. "What's like?" I asked cautiously.

"Loving you," he said like he was slightly exasperated. "You make me want this other life I can never have."

Huh? "What life?"

He stopped walking and stared at me quite intensely. "I want to pick up that basket of clothes and Rex and take you home with me?"

"Is this the sharing a closet thing?" I asked, thinking about the things he said to me the other day.

"This is a sharing my life thing."

I swallowed hard. "You want to share your life, with me?"

He threw his hands in the air and started pacing again. "Can't you see what you do to me? You drive me crazy. I never know if I want to shake you or kiss you or throw you on the nearest flat surface and fuck you into submission." Holy crap. "I try to run from you, but find myself on your doorstep instead. I try to protect you from my life, but I find myself needing your help, over and over. You're constantly saving me from disasters and killers and crazies, like my own personal superhero. I try to hide my feelings for you so I won't give you false hope, but I suddenly hear myself saying I love you. Then have to quickly try to cover it up so you can't see how weak I am." Oh. My. God. "You make me so crazy."

Oh, boy, I think I broke him. He was just pacing, waving his hands around, speaking about me, but not really to me. "Ranger?"

"I try to read you, but I'm at a complete fucking loss. I spend a couple nights with you, holding you in my arms while you sleep, and it feels so good, so right. God, I even tell you I've been thinking about marrying you. I think you're receptive to the idea, but then you run away and you're back living with Morelli when I get home. You really fucking confuse me."

"I confuse you?" I asked loudly, trying to pull his attention toward me. Was he kidding? He was the crazy, confusing one, not me. "You tell me you think about marrying me, but then follow that up with something cryptic like your karma is too damaged. You say you love me, but then say you can't commit."

"Babe."

"Why can't you commit? Why would I have to leave your bed eventually?"

He stared at me like I'd grown another head. "I'm not really husband material, Steph."

"And?"

"And, I love you and I want you, bad, but I don't think I'm father material either."

"And?"

"And you're going to want a husband and babies someday and if I can't give them to you you're going to leave me."

"What?"

"You're too good for the life I can give you."

"What can you give?"

"I don't know. I want to give you all those things, but what if something happens to you or one of our kids, because of me?"

"You're scared?"

"Terrified."

"Why?"

"Because of my past. It will catch up with me. All the pain and death I caused will be returned to me someday. It'll be taken out on you, it's already being taken out on you."

"Ranger. Stop pacing, please." He stopped and looked at me. "Are you leaving me tonight?"

"I don't know," he answered. "I tried to."

"But you came here instead?" He nodded to me. "Ranger, what do you want?"

"I want you in my apartment, my bed, my life. I want to wake to you, spend my day with you, make love to you, and fall asleep in your arms." I stared at him, my mouth dropped open in shock. "You really have no idea how much I love you, do you?"

I couldn't believe what he was saying to me. I think I was going into shock. "I love you too, Ranger." The words were out of my mouth before I had a chance to rethink saying them. I blame the shock.

He stared at me, just waiting for me to say something more, but what else was there to say? That about summed it up. We both said it and now it hung in the air between us. "What is it that you want, Babe?" I stared back at him. What did I want? I didn't know how to answer that. I didn't think what I wanted was really a possibility. "Tell me, Steph. Do you want to be with me? Do you want to be with Morelli? Tell me." My eyes widen when he mentioned Joe. I hadn't even thought about him since this conversation started. How the hell could I go from sharing a home with him ten hours ago, to not thinking of him at all? "It's truth time, Babe. If you want something from me you need to tell me before I walk out that door."

I felt that panic set in again. He couldn't walk away. "It's not all that simple."

"You love him too?" I nodded back to him. "You told me I wasn't married because I was impossible. I can't argue with that assessment. But why aren't you married, Stephanie?"

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe because you haven't asked me," I grumbled.

"What about Morelli, he's asked you hasn't he?"

"Not recently."

"Why?"

"Because I'm not ready for that."

"Why?"

"I…" I shook my head. I couldn't say it.

"Because you've been waiting for me?"

I felt the tears start to fall down my cheeks. All I could do was shake my head yes. "If I marry him I'll lose you."

"And if you marry me?" he asked.

"It was never an option."

"What if it were an option?"

"I don't know."

"What do you want, Stephanie?"

"I want a chance to try things with you, to see if we can make a relationship work."

He still standing a good six feet away from me, just watching me. "Like a trial relationship?"

"No, a real relationship," I answered, unsure how he was going to react to this. He wasn't really a relationship kind of guy. "I want to date you."

"Date?"

"We need to get to know one another that way before we jump into something more serious."

"So you won't just move in with me?" I shook my head no. "You want the whole pink roses and romantic candle light dinner thing?" I shook my head yes. "I suppose I could give that a try."

My heart jumped up into my throat. He was giving me what I wanted. I couldn't believe it could be this simple. "What do you want, Ranger?"

"I need to know that if we're dating I'm the only one you're dating. I'm not going to pick you up and drop you off at Morelli's house anymore." I thought about all the times he's had to do that over the years and cringed. "Can you give him up?"

Could I walk away from Joe? We weren't committed, we were allowed to see other people, so it wasn't as if I would be breaking up with him, really. It'd be more like telling him I needed to give Ranger the same chance I gave him.

If Ranger wanted an exclusive relationship with me, wasn't that so much better than what I had with Joe? We weren't really dating. We were getting together for sex, good sex, but it was just sex. Even though we always said we could see other people, I never did, except Ranger. Honestly I didn't know if Joe was seeing other women or not. I didn't think he was and the idea of him with someone else hurt me, but it wasn't the same pain I got when I thought I was losing Ranger earlier. It was more the idea of not being enough for him that hurt me. It was the same feeling I got when The Dick cheated on me.

I looked up at Ranger and studied his beautiful features, his dark eyes watched me, trying to read me. No, I couldn't let him go without giving us a try. I'd never forgive myself nor did I think I would ever get over the loss. "Ranger," I started.

"Don't, Steph," he said shaking his head sadly. "I was a fool to come here tonight."

What? I watched him start toward the door. "Ranger, stop! I love you." He stopped, but didn't turn to look at me. "I want to try. I want to be with you, only you."

He did turn then. "You're sure?"

"Yes, positive."

He moved then, stalking toward me like a big jungle cat. His arms were suddenly around me and his lips were on mine. I lost myself to the intoxicating kiss and nearly fell over when he let me go. "Babe, go put on that little red dress. I'm taking you to dinner."

"Tonight?"

He smiled, "And tomorrow, and then the next day." I raised my eyebrows at him. "Third date rule, Babe. I'm anxious to get there."

My head spun at that. Third date rule? He was going to wait for sex? "Don't breakfast and lunch count?" I asked still breathless from the kiss.

"Oh, no, you're getting romanced, Babe, not seduced."

Oh, boy! This was going to be good.


End file.
